After completing the perfume advertisement I began to work on the
preliminary task which was to create a front cover and mock up contents page
for a college magazine, the college could either be Wyke or made up. After this
was complete the foundation portfolio work began; this included creating a
front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine with a
genre of the person’s choice. The images used for both tasks had to be our own,
a medium close up of the model on magazines, a house style theme and finally
the layout of the magazine had to look professional and something others would
be interested in reading.
Post Production
Before the preliminary task and the foundation portfolio was set I had
very little skills in Adobe Photoshop, therefore I thought I would struggle
with the tools and the programme itself unless I received some help from the
teachers or Ray. I didn’t have many skills in Adobe Photoshop due to never having
to use it previously and even when I tried to use it I got so confused I
decided not to bother. Similarly to this I didn’t have any skills in my
friends’ DSLR Canon E0SD 1000 as I’d never used it before, nevertheless after
she taught me the basics I felt comfortable using it. In contrast to this I had
skills in Microsoft Publisher, Google’s Blogger and using my own Sony
Cyber-shot DSC-W210; Microsoft Publisher was a common programme used throughout
secondary therefore I knew the majority of the tools and could use the
programme without any help; Google’s Blogger was slightly new to me but I still
understood the basics to the blogging programme due to having three of my own
personal blogs. Finally I had skills and understood the different setting of my
Sony camera due to having had it a few years I was able to work the camera
perfectly until it was damaged.
Research and Planning, using
conventions from real media texts
To begin both tasks I research into different magazines which held the
same genre as mine as this enabled me to see how they used the conventions and
to see whether they broke any; doing this gave me ideas on how I could complete
my own magazines. Once I’d researched into three different magazines for the
preliminary task I then did a LIIAR (Language, Ideology, Institution, Audience
and Representation) analysis for each magazine to compare the three, using this
method of research I was then able to conduct my own ideas on how I could make
my magazine more appealing than what I had analysed. Similarly for the
foundation portfolio I researched into three different music magazines which
held the same genre of my magazine, I used the LIIAR analysis for this research
also. After analysing both the different college and music magazines I took
some time to see which conventions would work well for each of my magazines, I
feel I didn’t do so well at this with the college magazine however after taking
some time to look at the conventions used for my specific genre I was able to
use and break some of these conventions when I created my own music magazine. Once
all research was complete I was able to begin planning the shape of my college
magazine; when planning the college magazine I created two digital mock ups, in
contrast to this for the foundation portfolio I created 4 drawn plans for the
front cover, two digital mock ups and the online presentation tool Prezzi to
create a presentation of all the images I had taken. I felt I needed to take
more time with planning the foundation portfolio as I only did two plans in the
preliminary task and didn’t show my full potential.
Digital Technology
Throughout the process of both the preliminary task and the foundation
portfolio I used many different digital technologies such as, Adobe Photoshop
CS5 and CS4, Microsoft Publisher 2007 and 2010, finally two different cameras a
compact Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W210 and a DSLR Canon E0SD 1000. Using these
different technologies enabled me to broaden my skills as I had never really
used Adobe Photoshop or the DSLR camera in the past; using Adobe Photoshop in
the preliminary task enabled me to pick up some very small skills however I
still struggled with the programme, nevertheless when it came to the foundation
portfolio I felt I needed to show off the very little skills I had, therefore I
created four drafts and received feedback on each of these drafts until I began
to use different tools on the programme which enabled me to complete my final
product to grade a B. Using both the compact and DSLR camera I was then able to
see which camera I was more comfortable with; when I was creating the college
magazine I needed to take a clear medium shot of the student, however from
never using a DSLR camera before my friend gave me a small lesson on how I was
to use the camera to ensure I got the shots I wanted, overall I was happy with
the photos I’d managed to get, however when I used my compact Sony Cyber-shot
DSC-W210 for the first images for the foundation portfolio I weren’t as happy
with the images due to the state my camera was in, after using the DSLR again
for the final photos I felt confident with the images and more confident with
my work.
Creativity
When it was time to finally begin the creative stage of both the
preliminary task and the foundation portfolio I was slightly on edge as I was
unsure on how to work Adobe Photoshop properly and worried about the difference
of CS4 and CS5, however after realising the two are very similar I felt more
confident in my work but still struggled with the basic tools until I got to understand
what each tool did; creating the college magazine at first was difficult
nevertheless after creating four drafts I felt confident. In contrast to this
is when I started to create the music magazine for the foundation portfolio, I
understood the basic tools and after planning thoroughly each stage I was going
to complete I was far more organised than I was previously. After planning two
photo shoots I was far more aware of how the images will work for my genre, the
first photo shoot wasn’t as good as the male models didn’t pay attention to
what I was saying and they chose to do their own thing, which then made my
music magazine look unprofessional. However when working with the female model
she was confident in some images, ready to work, listened to both me and the
other person I was doing the photo shoot with, this then lead to having a
better relationship with the model and making my music magazine look more
professional plus the image went well with the conventions for my genre.
Overall I
think my skills have developed with time and now I feel comfortable and
confident when using Adobe Photoshop. The preliminary task and foundation
portfolio have taught me skills that not only have helped me gain an
understanding of Adobe Photoshop but it has also helped for when I want to edit
some of my own photos in my spare time.
